Book censorship in China

Book censorship has covered a long period of time in China. Both domestic and foreign books which do not meet the central government's requirement will be censored and forbidden to be published.

In the 213 BCE, ancient China conducted a book censorship movement called "burning of books and burying of scholars".[2][3] Qin Shi Huang (reigned 247-210 BCE), the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, suppressed all books related with Confucianism. Many Confucian scholars were buried alive.[3]

In the 18th century Qing dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735-1796) asked his officials to censor books published in the 17th century which contained any anti-dynastic or heterodox thoughts.[4][4] All these books had to be burned in order to avoid having a negative impact on the next generation's thoughts.[4]

In the 1960s and 1970s, especially during the period of the Cultural Revolution, the books which were allowed to be published were very limited. They only included classic works by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin, books written by Mao Zedong and Lu Xun, a few political readings, and Revolutionary opera books.[5][6] Books beyond this scope were all banned from selling and borrowing.[6] In 1971, there were only 46 state-owned publishing houses.[6] Students who wanted to see these censored books circulated handwritten, string-bound copies among their classmates.[6]

During the martial law period under the KMT, as an authoritarian state, exercised strict control of publication. Distribution of political manifestos and documents other than those from the KMT, Chinese Youth Party and China Democratic Socialist Party, were banned and publications advocating either democracy or Taiwan independence were banned.

As well as censoring the publication of such books within China and encouraging self censorship, the importation and dissemination of such material is often severely punished and circulation by the way of online files is strictly controlled. There are so many books and publications that are banned in China that it is impossible to list them all. Book types that are typically banned are as follows: Books about Chinese modern politics, biographies of former leaders. Books about the lives of or allegations concerning current leaders - these are particularly sensitive topics. Books concerning Tibet and Xinjiang that do less than fully endorse that these have always and will always be part of China. Books about the Dalai Lama, about the June 4th 1989 Tiananmen square massacre or the events of the Cultural Revolution. Books about the Falun Gong religious movement, and other religious books which may contradict government endorsed theology, including some editions of the Holy Bible. Books of allegorical fiction that obliquely criticize the Chinese government.

China's state-run General Administration of Press and Publication (新闻出版总署) (GAPP) screens all Chinese literature that is intended to be sold on the open market. The GAPP has the legal authority to screen, censor, and ban any print, electronic, or Internet publication in China. Because all publishers in China are required to be licensed by the GAPP, that agency also has the power to deny people the right to publish, and completely shut down any publisher who fails to follow its dictates.[7] Consequently, the ratio of official-to-unlicensed books is said to be 40%:60%.[8] According to a report in ZonaEuropa, there are more than 4,000 underground publishing factories around China.[7] The Chinese government continues to hold public book burnings[9] on unapproved literature or books that have since fallen out of favor with Communist Party elites[10] though critics claim this spotlight on individual titles only helps fuel booksales.[11]

Some banned books are available in limited circulation to Communist party leaders, so they can better understand the outside world. These books are marked as for internal use (內部) i.e. within the party only.

Even though the book censorship is widespread across mainland China, censorship is a negotiable process regarding some agreed-upon historical facts.[12]

Compared with the mainland China, publishing in Hong Kong remains less censored. Publishers such as New Century Press freely publish books, including lurid fictional accounts, about Chinese officials and forbidden episodes of Chinese history. Banned material including imported material such as that published by Mirror Books of New York City are sold in bookshops such as "People’s Commune bookstore" patronized by shoppers from the mainland.[13] Nowadays, as more and more mainland tourists travel to Hong Kong, the central government tends to have a greater control over the book publication.[1] There are more book store closures and less willing publishers.[14] Bookshops in Hong Kong have been making changes of what they sell and those books generally have less coverage over political, religious, and other sensitive issues disliked by the central government.[1] This can be regarded as a kind of self-censorship or soft censorship.[1] In 2018, some Hong Kong booksellers who trafficked banned books were found missing.[15] Some independent publishers in Hong Kong who sell politically sensitive books hide those forbidden books behind a counter or rent their bookstores on higher floors in some commercial buildings where few people know them.[1]

In 2012, state-owned publishers in China acquired publishing rights to more than 16,000 foreign titles, a jump of nearly tenfold since 1995.[16]

In 2015, 12 American publishers, including Penguin Random House, Macmillan Publishers, and W. W. Norton & Company, signed a pledge to oppose against Chinese government's censorship targeting foreign authors' works.[17] Many foreign authors found that some of their books' content was removed when translating into Chinese without their knowledge.[18] Some authors did not know enough how Chinese censorship actually worked, so they just signed contracts stating the insurance of their original content without double-checking whether the translation version had any content changes.[19] Most expurgated content is related with political sensitivities or political incorrectness.[19]

In 2017, publishers at a book fair held in Beijing needed to exercise self-censorship by avoiding selling books related with sensitive topics, such as 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan sovereignty debate and Political status of Taiwan so as to adapt to one of the largest book publishing markets in the world.[20] In the same year, the Chinese government asked Cambridge University Press to block online access to more than 300 articles which contained political sensitivities from the China Quarterly.[21] Many scholars signed a petition to call upon Cambridge University Press to oppose against the Chinese government's censorship request so as to ensure academic and publication freedom.[22] Besides, the Chinese government imposed restrictions on the access to foreign children's books since they believed that children should be more in touch with books reflecting Chinese values.[23]

In 2018, the editors of The Transcultural ResearchBook Series ended their cooperation with Springer Nature which imposed restrictions on access to more than 1,000 political science journal articles in China.[24] If the content books or journals do not fit the Chinese Department of Propaganda's agenda, those books will be banned from publication and selling.[24]

• Censorship in China
• List of books banned by governments